ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 13 Shabak Kurds managed to flee the Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul and reach Peshmerga frontlines on the Bashik front, a Peshmerga commander told Rudaw. "Thirteen Shabak Kurds, including nine children, two men and two women were able to escape ISIS militants on Mosul’s outskirts and reach Peshmerga frontlines on the Bashik front," Bashram Doski, a Peshmerga commander, told Rudaw. Doski added that "The escapees were on the road for 12 hours to reach Bashik town and the Peshmerga forces." After reaching the Peshmerga, "they were transferred to a safe area from where they will be handed over to the security forces for necessary legal measures," Doski said. According to UN estimates, some 400,000 Shabaks live in Iraq, mostly in the areas of Shingal, where their 56 villages have been seized by ISIS. More than 1,380 Shabaks have been killed and 208 remain missing. Iraq’s Shabak minority – a Kurdish religious minority group who has lived in the Nineveh area for centuries – was entirely displaced by an ISIS onslaught in June 2014. In the past, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani had facilitated the return of Shabaks to Kurdistan from other parts of Iraq after they fled their homes when ISIS swept Mosul. Every person who escapes ISIS and arrives in the Kurdistan Region is investigated by security forces for ties to the terrorist group.
